The Dark

A man and a woman are the protagonists of this story. She is school-age but works in a factory. He’s old enough to be her father, although that would be impossible for various reasons. Their bond is not forbidden love and although it seems as though it should be, is not clandestine either. It is a necessary, desperate love. These elements, which might suggest a story of moral decrepitude or political incorrectness, are subjected to the speculative tone of the protagonist, someone left unmoved by the consequences of his actions, which he regards with nostalgia and a little curiosity but never regret. Once more, Sergio Chefjec has constructed a sinuous, persistent narrative that unfolds as though on a huge stage. The Dark will move readers with the complex but innocent psychology of its characters and uncertain passages: a city that is not a city, a tormented soul and especially a world in which social relations become a crude fable.